A novel risk assessment method for landfill slope failure: Case study application for Bhalswa Dumpsite, India

Abstract

Rapid population growth of major urban centres in many developing countries has created massive landfills with extraordinary heights and steep side-slopes, which are frequently surrounded by illegal low-income residential settlements developed too close to landfills. These extraordinary landfills are facing high risks of catastrophic failure with potentially large numbers of fatalities. This study presents a novel method for risk assessment of landfill slope failure, using probabilistic analysis of potential failure scenarios and associated fatalities. The conceptual framework of the method includes selecting appropriate statistical distributions for the municipal solid waste (MSW) material shear strength and rheological properties for potential failure scenario analysis. The MSW material properties for a given scenario is then used to analyse the probability of slope failure and the resulting run-out length to calculate the potential risk of fatalities. In comparison with existing methods, which are solely based on the probability of slope failure, this method provides a more accurate estimate of the risk of fatalities associated with a given landfill slope failure. The application of the new risk assessment method is demonstrated with a case study for a landfill located within a heavily populated area of New Delhi, India.

Effects of anisotropy in correlation structure on reliability-based slope stability analysis of a landfill

“…It should be noted that the factor of safety distribution only determines the P f , but the failure surfaces on the landfill slope can be very different from each other and the volume of displaced waste in them may have very different values. As a result, combining the results of the P f and failure area calculation can lead to a better determination of the risks of landfill failure (Jahanfar et al, 2017b).…”

Monitoring and Quantitative Human Risk Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste Landfill Using Integrated Satellite–UAV–Ground Survey Approach

“…A slope will fail only if the FOS is lower than unity, which is the probability of failure (P(FOS < 1)). Table 6 shows the mean and coefficient of variation (COV) of the required data for MSW cohesion and friction angle probabilistic distributions, which were derived from values in the literature [4,19] and technical code for geotechnical engineering of municipal solid MSW sanitary landfills [31]. Previous research has shown that the friction angle and cohesion of the MSW follow normal and log-normal distributions, respectively [18,19].…”

“…Landfills are the dominant MSW disposal method in China, which are prone to fail in the rainy season. Failure results in severe pollution to the environment and threaten the lives and properties of people in the surrounding area once the failure occurs [3,4]. Landfill failures have frequently occurred all over the world in recent years (Table 1).…”

Analysis of failure in landfill construction elements

“…During this stage the largest number of failures is most probable to occur, including: In case of any of these failures, there is a serious threat of surface and groundwater pollution, caused by the leachate infiltrating the subsoil. Landfill leachate is a complex mixture characterized by high toxicity, able to contaminate soils and waters surrounding the landfill [17,18] or penetrate deeper soil layers reaching drinking water source zones [14,15,19]. Once the leachate releases into the soil, it will interact physically and chemically with both the adjacent groundwater and the soil matrix [20].…”